Talk about product overlap: just over a month ago, Mitsubishi introduced its XD500U, boasting a pixel count of 1,024 x 768 and brightness of 2,200-lumens. Now say "hello" to the XD211U, with the same pixel count, brightness, and BrilliantColor specs. The XD211U weighs in at 0.5-pounds lighter and does boast a new DDP 2230 TI microarray, however. The theft-deterrent security hook will protect the $1595 beamer from any grabby hands around the office or classroom. The projector might be secure, but you know some deadbeat is going to make off with the detachable keypad and render this thing unusable -- better order a spare keypad right up front.

[Via AboutProjectors]

Every bean-counter knows that falling prices and shrinking margins add up to one thing - cost-cutting pressure. Now we get word that JVC and Kenwood are merging underneath a single holding company, aptly named JVC Kenwood Holdings. Hopes are high for the new company, with plans to quadruple profit in three short years by focusing on car and home audio. Expect to see more of this kind of merger/acquisition activity, especially among small- to medium-sized companies as more competition -- especially from South Korea and China -- ramps up. Every JVC share will be exchanged for two shares in the new company, while Kenwood stock will get a 1-for-1 rate. JVC definitely got the better end of the deal, with JVC's president continuing on in that role with the new company. It will be interesting to watch how this might affect Kenwood/Bain Capital bidding for D&M Holdings.

EDIT: the new company will be called JVC Kenwood Holdings, not JVC Holdings. - Thanks, dcny!

If you're looking for a standalone Blu-ray player that hits all the checkmarks, make room for the Panasonic DMP-BD50 on your list. After being teased with this unit at CES, only to see it go to European consumers first, it's finally official in the US of A. BD-Live support gets tops billing in the press release, so rest assured that once the floodgates of internet-enabled additional content are opened, you'll be ready to surf. Considerably more usable right now, the next-gen Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA audio codecs (also with in-player decoding) are there as well. Good stuff, but the $700 MSRP is little extreme for what amounts to an internet-enabled disc spinner, and won't exactly be invigorating those struggling Blu-ray player sales.

[Thanks, Mike S]

Possibly buoyed by margins produced by its $2500 XEL-1, Sony is pumping 22-billion yen ($203.5 million) into scaling OLED production technology up to medium and large panels. No word on what sort of sizes are meant by "medium" and "large," but we're hoping that "medium" comes in around 30-inches and "large" runs upwards of the 45-inch mark. Competition being what it is, Sony probably hopes so, too. With OLED lifetimes on the rise, the only thing that keeps these power-miserly, high-contrast, great color and wide-viewing angle displays out of a home theater setup is sheer size. Given the race between manufacturers, we're hoping to see falling prices, rising sizes and shorter times to market.

Check out what we saw while prowling around Sony's booth at PMA -- a compact shooter badged "DSC-XXXX." Intriguing -- the overall form factor says S-series and the 8.1-megapixels, 3x zoom callouts fit the bill, too. Some super-secret new Cyber-shot from the wizards at Sony? Sorry folks, it's just the DSC-S780, so new they didn't have time to print up the right model number on the casing.

Sigma was showing off their digicam slab of tech, the DP1. To the untrained eye, it doesn't look like much. But Sigma's put the same 14.1-megapixel APS-C sized Foveon CMOS sensor used in its SD14 DSLR into this tiny package. There's a f/4, 28-mm (in 35-mm equivalent terms) lens, but what really impressed us was the build quality on this unit -- not a creak or bit of flex to be had on the camera. It's definitely a high-end piece of photo jewelry.

Kodak wasn't showing off too much new product at this year's show -- or if it was, none of the gear was stuff we follow -- but can you really get a good feel for a trade show without touring the booth of the company whose name is synonymous with photography? Of course not, which is why we gathered together a gallery which pretty well represents everything you'd see had you been here yourself. Isn't that great? We trudge out to Las Vegas so you don't have to.

Canon's got a lot of product to fit under its umbrella, so the booth is quite the monster. Just about everything in the digital photo workflow is covered here, from the cameras (duh) right up to the final print. All interest/skill levels from amateur to pro are covered too. Check out all those lenses, only to be topped by what looked like a museum collection of Canon point-and-shoots. And yet, Canon found time and space to put in some really big, beautiful prints just to get you back to what photography is all about.

Sony's booth has to be pretty big to hold all the imaging goodies, so here's a whirlwind tour of it. You know Sony's making a play for the big boys in the DSLR arena, so the alpha-series had a good amount of serious-looking real estate. The fleet of Sony point-and-shoots were also on display; with all the colors, shapes and sizes the display looked like a candy counter. Tech development also got some floor space, and the live demo of face detection used by Sony's Handycams was particularly fun.

Another colorful point-and-shoot, you say? Yes, but with a difference: General Imaging's E-1050 uses Geotate's clever approach to geotagging your photos. Add that to a 10-megapixel sensor, 5x zoom, electronic image stabilization and face detection and red eye removal that's in vogue this year, and you've got an interesting little package. Unfortunately, the unit was tethered by its HDMI port to a TV, so we couldn't play around with the unit and give away our location, so we'll have to wait and see if geotagging is enough of a checkmark to differentiate this little digicam.

Step on down into Nikon's booth with us. Lots of goodies on display here, but what really struck us was how much the central section of the booth was taken up by (gasp!) photos. Seriously, it had a bit of a gallery feel, except with way more people. But we're here to get our geek on, so it's over to the gear counters we go! The stripped-down D3 body was nice, and Nikon showed off one in cross section as well, just so you don't have to cut your own in half.

Here's twin brother to Pentax's K20D DSLR, the Samsung GX-20. It looks like a nice bit of kit, and we're really curious to see if any differences between the two as a result of Samsung doing its own thing with the JPEG processing. If you've been watching either this model or the K20D, you know the specs: 14.6-megapixel CMOS, live view LCD and ISO that you can crank up to 3200. Note the Pentax KAF mount, so you can put Pentax glass on this body; and there are some nice lenses in the Pentax stable to be sure. Also, Samsung was showing off their extended grip with wireless capability.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement when Pentax releases new cameras in its Optio range -- do you people only love them for their DSLRs? -- but nonetheless, we gave them the same hands-on treatment that everyone else gets. Below you'll find the new S12, E50, and M50 in all their seemingly-unpopular glory, despite the fact that they seemed like fairly stylish, solidly-built products to us. Still with us? Great, we've got a lot of multi-colored point-and-shoot action in store for you.

Sony fans, the fun's not over yet. Besides going hands-on with that pair of new 300-series alpha DSLRs and that alphabet soup of H, S, and T series cams, we also managed to take a look at all four new W series Cyber-shots. Differing mostly in resolution and optical zoom, the 10.1 megapixel DSC-W170, 8.1 megapixel DSC-W150 and DSC-W130, and 7.2 megapixel DSC-W120 all feature the company's "smile shutter" technology, which we found to work pretty well at recognizing our grins during a demo. Look for these to start shipping in March and April, for between $200 and $300.

While it's always great to see your consumer point-and-shoots get a decent spec bump or two, Sony's not really offering too many breakthrough new features in the latest refresh to its T, S, and H series Cyber-shots. Still, it was nice to check out the updated DSC-H3, DSC-S700, and DSC-T200 at Sony's PMA booth in the form of the DSC-H10, DSC-S750 / S780, and DSC-T300, respectively. Ranging from $150 to $400, and from 7.2 to 10.1 megapixels, the four cameras in this gallery seem like they'd be a fine upgrade to folks already hooked on their MemorySticks.